First Doctor
The first Doctor was the original incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Early life and education The individual that was later known as the Doctor was born on Gallifrey under the sign of the crossed computers, the symbol of the maternity service. He would play with rontgen bricks in the nursery, was frightened by the myths about the Fendahl in his childhood and as a boy he had always wanted to drive a train. (DW: "The Creature from the Pit", "Smith and Jones", "Image of the Fendahl", "Black Orchid") When he was a little boy, he lived with his family in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain in South Gallifrey. Behind his house there was a tree under which an old hermit sat - allegedly having lived there for half his lifetime - and who had learned the secret of life. On what felt like the blackest day of his life, he went and asked the old man to help him. The hermit was silent and expressionless as he sat listening to the Doctor, who was too unhappy even for tears, pouring out his troubles to him. When the Doctor had finished, the hermit simply raised a hand and pointed to a little weed that was just like a daisy. Looking at it for a moment, he saw it through the hermit's eyes and found it to be "simply glowing with life, like a perfectly cut jewel", and the colours were "deeper and richer than you could possibly imagine" - "the daisiest daisy he'd ever seen." When he later got up and ran down the mountain, he found the bare grey rocks were "red, brown and purple and gold", and that the snow, which had before seemed like a collection of pathetic little patches of sludge, was now "shining white in the sunlight." He would remember this day as being not only his blackest, but also his best. He would spend what he felt where some of the finest hours of his life with his guru, being taught how look into his own mind and getting told ghost stories about a race of giant vampires who could individually suck the life out of entire planets. (DW: "The Time Monster", "State of Decay", "Planet of the Spiders") He would later remember lying back in the grass with his father on a warm night watching the sky dancing with purple, green and "brilliant yellow" lights during a meteor storm. (DW: "Doctor Who") He and a friend who came to be known as the Master would spend time together on the land of the Master's father, situated on the red pastures across the slopes of Mount Perdition. They used to run across the fields there, calling up at the sky during their play. (DW: "The End of Time") When he was eight years old, he was taken from his family to undergo initiation into the Academy. He stared into the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of reality that revealed the whole of the Time Vortex, and the ordeal hurt him. It was thought that, of those who underwent this experience, some would be inspired, some would go mad and some would run away. He would claim that he was one of those who ran away, once remarking that he never stopped. (DW: "The Sound of Drums", "The End of Time") Having made his vows, he became a member of the Prydonian Chapter. (DW: "The Deadly Assassin") The Doctor and the Master were at the Academy together. At school, they assembled time flow analogues to spoil each other's time experiments. He would achieve a degree in cosmic science that was of a lower class than that achieved by the Master, eventually leading him to claim that he was a late developer. (DW: "The Five Doctors", "The Time Monster", "Terror of the Autons") The Doctor, who was known to engage in pranks, could never deceive Borusa while his student at the Academy. Borusa had on many occasions told the Doctor that "'' you will never amount to anything in the galaxy while you retain your propensity for vulgar facetiousness." (DW: "The Invasion of Time", "The Deadly Assassin") He came to the Medusa Cascade, the centre of a rift in time and space, when he was "just a kid" of ninety years of age. At one point, he would seal the rift at the Medusa Cascade single-handed. (DW: "The Stolen Earth", "Last of the Time Lords") His specialist subject at university was thermodynamics. While he was there he knew a woman later known as the Rani, who was of the same age as himself. He was critical of her lack of ethics in regard to her experiments, and she tired of what she thought of as his cant about her research during this time. (DW: "Time and the Rani") His nickname at college was Theta Sigma. (DW: "The Armageddon Factor", "The Happiness Patrol") He received training in emotional detachment. (DW: "The Invasion of Time") He was on the tech course with Drax and graduated from the Class of '92, having scraped through with 51% on his second attempt. He went on to receive his doctorate, although he would once claim that it was purely honorary. (DW: "The Armageddon Factor", "The Ribos Operation", "The Ark in Space") Adulthood and exile He became a father and a grandfather, with at least one granddaughter. (DW: "Fear Her", "The Empty Child", "100,000 BC") He managed to persuade the High Council of the Time Lords that miniscopes were an offence against the dignity of sentient life forms. Although they never interfered as a rule, he made such a nuisance of himself that the Time Lords had them banned. This lead to all miniscopes being officially called in and destroyed. (DW: "Carnival of Monsters") Before he fell from favour and became something an exile from Time Lord society, he came to the inauguration of Space Station Chimera in the Third Zone, bearing fraternal greetings from Gallifrey. He met Joinson Dastari on this occasion. (DW: "The Two Doctors") He was not content with the Time Lords' law of non-interference, and was bored with their way of simply observing and gathering knowledge when his people's great powers would allow him the opportunity to meet countless civilisations and explore millions of planets through aeons of time. (DW: "The War Games") Having grown tired of their lifestyle, he left Gallifrey in a stolen Type 40 TT capsule, an older model that he would claim to have borrowed with the full intention of returning. (DW: "Resurrection of the Daleks", "The Deadly Assassin", "Frontier in Space", "The Big Bang") Chosen because it was unlocked, the TARDIS was already a museum piece when he was young, but the first time he touched the console he said that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever known. (DW: "The Doctor's Wife") He and his sole travelling companion, his granddaughter, were exiles, cut off from their planet without friends or protection. Although he intended for them to someday return, he knew that he could not. (DW: "100,000 BC", "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve") He would later claim that he had constructed the ship. (DW: "The Chase") He once claimed to have studied under Joseph Lister and taken a degree to become a medical doctor in Glasgow during the year 1888, although he expressed uncertainty about the accuracy of his remembrance. On another occasion, he joked that it was a pity he never got that degree after Ian Chesterton sarcastically commented on the cursory nature of a medical examination he had given him. (DW: "The Moonbase", "The Rescue") Being appreciative of the "''gentle art" of fisticuffs himself, he taught the Mountain Mauler of Montana how to fight. The Doctor considered himself, in terms of fighting, to be one of the best. (DW: "The Romans") He once met Pyrrho, the founder of Scepticism. (DW: "The Keys of Marinus") He would recall once speaking to someone on a visit to Rome, a city he considered to be fascinating. (DW: "The Romans") He travelled to the planet Dido just after the people there had perfected a ray used in construction work. He became familiar with local customs and would remember the inhabitants as friendly people, ultimately visiting them again years later. (DW: "The Rescue") He attested that he gave Hans Andersen the idea for The Emperor's New Clothes. (DW: "The Romans") He also implied that he was present when James Watt made a great discovery by watching steam coming out of a kettle. (DW: "The Space Museum") He briefly visited the Celestial Toymaker's world. The notoriety of the Toymaker and his games being known to him, the Doctor had "hardly time to turn around" before leaving. This disappointed the Toymaker, who had hoped the Doctor would have stayed long enough for a game. (DW: "The Celestial Toymaker") He and Susan once landed on a planet called Esto where the plants used thought transference. They discovered that if you stood between two plants, they set up a screeching noise. He said that this was because they were aware of another mind. (DW: "The Sensorites") An "extraordinary quarrel" he had with King Henry VIII of England involved the King throwing a parson's nose at him. When the Doctor threw it back, the King gave the order for the Doctor and Susan to be taken to the Tower of London. Fortunately, this was what the Doctor had intended to achieve by throwing the parson's nose because that was where the TARDIS was located. (DW: "The Sensorites") Beau Brummel always said that he looked better in a cloak, although he once acquired an ulster from Gilbert and Sullivan that was too big for him. (DW: "The Sensorites", "Inside the Spaceship") He and Susan saw a Zeppelin air raid, later describing the airships as "infernal machines". (DW: "Planet of the Giants") The Reign of Terror was his favourite period in the history of Earth. (DW: "The Reign of Terror") Four or five journeys before the trip that saw their arrival in the Himalayas in the 13th century, he and Susan nearly lost the TARDIS on the planet Quinnis of the fourth universe. (DW: " Inside the Spaceship") Appendices Appearances *''Doctor Who: **"100,000 BC" **"The Mutants" **"Inside the Spaceship" **"Marco Polo" **"The Keys of Marinus" **"The Aztecs" **"The Sensorites" **"The Reign of Terror" **"Planet of Giants" **"The Dalek Invasion of Earth" **"The Rescue" **"The Romans" **"The Web Planet" **"The Crusade" **"The Space Museum" **"The Chase" **"The Time Meddler" **"Galaxy 4" **"The Myth Makers" **"The Daleks' Master Plan" **"The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve" **"The Ark" **"The Celestial Toymaker" **"The Gunfighters" **"The Savages" **"The War Machines" **"The Smugglers" **"The Tenth Planet" **"The Power of the Daleks" (hallucination) **"Day of the Daleks" (archive footage only) **"The Three Doctors" **"The Brain of Morbius" (archive footage only) **"Earthshock" (archive footage only) **"Mawdryn Undead" (archive footage only) **"The Five Doctors" **"Resurrection of the Daleks" (archive footage only) **"The Next Doctor" (hologram, archive footage only) **"The Eleventh Hour" (hologram, archive footage only) **"The Vampires of Venice" (photograph, archive footage only) **"Vincent and the Doctor" (photograph, archive footage only) **"The Lodger" (archive footage only) *The Sarah Jane Adventures: "Death of the Doctor" (archive footage only) References *Doctor Who'': "Human Nature" (illustration) Category:The Doctor